Find Your Ask the Expert: Peace Lily brown/black leaves
We received a beautiful large peace lily as a gift when moving into our new offices. It has been going downhill and I’ve been trying to save it. Leaves turning brown/black. I trim them off. I repotted the plant. The roots seemed to be OK. I did purchase a clay pot with drain holes so used about 3″ of rock in the bottom of the pot. Will this work?
I now have more stems that were cut off than I have stems with leaves. The leaves continue to turn brown/black and I keep cutting them off. I have gotten two blooms since repotting, but they do not last very long.
Any suggestions? Ellen
Ellen,
When peace lily leaves have problems the first thought is we have a watering issue. However, it sounds as if you have that under control. Was the peace lily exposed to a great temperature fluctuation? Sometimes temperature changes can cause problems in peace lilies and they stress when they have to acclimate to new situations. Are you getting any new growth and is it turning black as well? If this is the case you might have a Phytophthora fungus issue with your plant. Removing any infected leave is the best course of action although you can use a fungicide to take care of the fungal problem.
Although peace lilies are fairly resilient, they tend to take a while to recover from any stress. So, if you remove all the damaged leaves and the spreading stops be patience and give the peace lily time to recover. The key is to look for new growth and watch it.